


Silver In Our Lungs

by pure_shores



Series: You Were Red and You Liked Me Because I Was Blue [5]
Category: Crankiplier - Fandom, Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Angst, Angst and Feels, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Angst with a Happy Ending, Boys In Love, Communication, Dorks in Love, Established Relationship, Ethan's a smart boi, Flirting, Idiots in Love, Light Angst, M/M, Mark's a busy boi, No Beta, No Smut, True Love, flirty banter, it is what it is, jsyk, lol also I'm an unus, unus annus flirting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-29
Updated: 2020-05-29
Packaged: 2021-03-02 20:02:12
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,942
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24442534
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pure_shores/pseuds/pure_shores
Summary: Ethan wakes up with a bad feeling about the day, but decides to distract himself with tasks around Mark's house. When Mark returns home from Secret Project work tired and frustrated, he snaps without thinking. Emotional communication and apologies ensue.
Relationships: Mark Fischbach/Ethan Nestor
Series: You Were Red and You Liked Me Because I Was Blue [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1742731
Comments: 12
Kudos: 166





	Silver In Our Lungs

**Author's Note:**

> If you haven't read this series from the beginning I highly recommend it because this is a whole universe going on!  
> As usual, this is a work of fiction in an alternate universe and the boys are actually in very real relationships with their girlfriends so please don't bring up shipping/fanfiction with them, okay? Great!  
> Hope you all enjoy x

You know those moments in life where everything felt like it was going a little  _ too _ well? Yeah, Ethan was having a morning like that. When he’d woken up in Mark’s bed alone - Secret Project was still ongoing - the feeling was settled deep in his chest and it wouldn’t leave. Logically he knew that it was just a result of anxiety in his brain making him feel that something bad was bound to happen and that the world didn’t work that way. People’s lives weren’t bound by rules of nature in which you were given a certain number of good days whilst guaranteed at least one bad day to come afterwards. Things just  _ happened.  _ But Ethan’s brain didn’t agree and so he spent the whole morning waiting for that bad thing to appear out of thin air, apparently. And so he tried to distract himself from these negative, worrying thoughts, knowing that they were only going to impact his day if he kept focusing on them. Things were going well because he and Mark were communicating properly about their feelings and how they wanted their life together to be. It’s not that life had been bad before this, necessarily, but when you talk to the people you love about what you want and need and they do the same with you, that usually leads to less tension and more smooth sailing.  _ That’s _ why Ethan felt as if things were going so well. He and Mark were on the same page and things between them were  _ so good _ . 

Although there was a little, teeny tiny memory at the back of his mind from the time when he’d given Mark a bath when he came home super tired and then made him breakfast in bed… when he’d told him that staying at his house felt like a vacation, Mark had proceeded to remind him that not everything lasts forever and vacations had to come to an end at some point. At the time, Ethan had mostly brushed it off as teasing but, as usual, his overthinking was getting the better of him. Did it mean that Mark never wanted them to live together? Ethan had been thinking of it a lot more since staying at his house to watch over Chica, how it made a lot more sense for them to live in the same space not just for work purposes but so that they could easily get hold of each other if they wanted to have dinner together or, well, just chill. They were always going back and forth between Mark’s house and his own apartment and to live together just got rid of a hell of a lot of unnecessary travelling in Ethan’s mind. But maybe Mark just preferred his own space and wanted to keep their living arrangements separate. That sort of lifestyle was slowly becoming more normal with couples in recent times so he supposed that his boyfriend might be leaning more towards it.  _ Not _ that it really meant anything, Ethan had to keep forcing himself to remember - maybe space would be good for them in the future. Perhaps with time they’d favour having their own time apart every now and then, not wanting to suffocate each other? Hell, how was he supposed to know? No one could tell the future! All he knew right now was that he loved Mark more than anything and wanted to be around him all the time. Yeah, he enjoyed having moments to himself every so often to play games or have a bath, but those were only for a couple of hours at a time, not like how it’d be  _ living in separate places. _ In fact, he was starting to get worried about going back to his apartment once Mark was done working on this project. It was going to be so lonely waking up in his bed without the smell of Mark on the pillows and the not-so-little reminders of him everywhere around the place - whether that was his coffee cup in the sink, his shampoo in the shower holder or his  _ dog _ laying on him in bed during the night. One thing was for sure though -  _ he really needed to talk to Mark about it. _

In an effort to distract himself from his own racing thoughts, Ethan decided to clean up Mark’s recording room - his boyfriend had said it himself so many times, even on camera, that it was a mess and from his experience of the times he’d recorded in there whilst he stayed at his house, well… let’s just say it needed a little TLC. So, armed with a duster, polish, the hoover and a trash bag, Ethan headed into the room to clean and reorganise. He started off with the computer desk because just the sight of it was enough to make his heartbeat skyrocket. Clearing off the assorted random items that Mark had collected through his various video ideas, Ethan put them into the trash bag. He wasn’t going to just throw them away, instead he was going to put them all in Mark’s storage room until he had the time to go through everything and decide whether to keep or donate to charity. As he picked up each item, a smile or a laugh would come upon him, his own memories associated with either watching, editing or participating in such videos springing to mind. He left the blue rose paperweight, his heart fluttering at the prominent emotional significance of the item, and decided that it would be a nice keepsake for Mark to have on his computer desk to keep him positive during filming and editing. When the desk was back to looking like a desk instead of a shelf in an antique store, Ethan took a quick break to drink some water and feed the dogs before moving the trash bag of assorted wonders to the storage room. Now the hardest part was out of the way, he headed back in and began dusting the corners of the room, polishing all of the surfaces and even tidied up some of the wiring which had begun leaning towards becoming chaotic. His heart lifted somewhat throughout all of this cleaning - Mark was sure to feel relieved at the fact that his recording room was no longer a place of mess and ruin and could actually see his surroundings when making videos. As he was finishing up with the hoover and surveying his work, Ethan heard the front door open and close downstairs. He grinned to himself - Mark was home just in time!

Hurrying to put the hoover and duster in the storage room, he grabbed the polish and made his way downstairs to greet Mark. He smiled warmly when he saw him, setting the polish on the dining table and crossing the distance between them to pull him into a tight hug. “Hey,” he said softly, feeling strong, secure arms wind around his waist, “Productive day? And night?” He giggled at his own addition, remembering that Mark hadn’t been working regular hours.

As Mark buried his face in his neck, he hummed his acknowledgement of the question as he seemingly thought about it, “Yeah, I guess. Just been a bit of a rough one today, working through loads of kinks. Probably gonna eat and just hit the sack, if that’s alright.”

“Sure,” Ethan supplied, “But first, I wanna show you something that might make you feel a bit better. It’ll only take like five minutes, I promise!” With Mark’s nod of approval, Ethan took his hand and they both headed to the recording room. When Ethan turned the lights on from inside the door, he grinned to himself at how good it looked, feeling himself beaming with pride from within. “I gave this place a bit of a clean up so now you can work without all the clutter around. Good, huh?” However, when he turned to see Mark’s reaction, his smile dropped at the look on his boyfriend’s face and dread filled him.

“Where’s all my stuff?” Mark started, voice quiet as he looked around with what could only be suppressed frustration in his eyes. He let go of Ethan’s hand and walked into the room towards his desk and then he spun around to take in all of the changes. Ethan’s heart stuttered as he watched and he felt heat begin to flood his face. He was sure that Mark would have loved this… “What if I needed everything where it was, Ethan? I’m gonna have to spend hours rearranging it all again…” He took in a deep breath and pinched the bridge of his nose between his thumb and forefinger, eyes sliding shut.

“I-I’m sorry, Mark, I thought-”

But he cut himself off when he saw Mark shaking his head slowly, then open his eyes once more and walk back towards the door, “I need sleep. Forget food, I’m just gonna go to bed.”

With that, Ethan stepped aside to let him through, but Mark didn’t meet his gaze as he passed by. He watched as his boyfriend walked into his bedroom and closed the door behind him and, for the first time since they’d gotten together, Ethan felt himself shut off from Mark. He swallowed down a lump that was trying to form in his throat, telling himself off for wanting to cry. This was to be expected, he tried to reason with himself - Mark was overtired and he was trying to force too much on his overworked brain. Especially when he’d just told him that he’d had a bad time at work. He should’ve waited to show him after he’d had some sleep. Trying not to blame himself too much or overthink this like he usually did, he simply turned off the lights in the recording room and closed the door. With a sigh, he went down to the kitchen and found Chica and Spencer playing together in the living room. “Hey guys, let’s go for a walk.” He retrieved their leashes, clipped them on, and made his way outside with both of them. The fresh air was good, especially after the frosty reception he’d just got from Mark, and he breathed it in deeply once they got to the park. As he let the dogs run around playing together, he scrubbed a hand through his hair and sighed, tilting his head back so he could stare at the sky for a bit. There were puffy white clouds hanging high up in the vibrant blue and it brought something of a smile to Ethan’s face. They stayed there for a while, knowing there was nothing to rush back to Mark’s house for and that they’d need to stay fairly quiet when they got there anyway so as to not disturb his sleep. When the dogs appeared to have tired themselves out, Ethan clipped their leashes back on and they headed back. He poured out fresh water and food for them when they arrived and he made some lunch for himself. As he sat there quietly, watching a video to pass the time on his phone, he was aware of the sound of a door opening upstairs. Pausing the video, he listened out carefully, thinking that Mark was probably going to pee or something. Instead, he heard footsteps coming down the stairs and his heart sped up in response. He scrambled to look like he hadn’t been snooping, grabbing his phone and loading up twitter to scroll through, then picking up the bottle of water next to him to take a sip. This way, if Mark wanted to ignore him and have some space whilst he did whatever he’d come down to do, he could do so without Ethan’s eyes following him wherever he went. Well, they’d still follow him but more covertly.

Pretending not to hear the footsteps coming across the laminate floor towards where he was sat at the dining table, Ethan couldn’t help but feel his spine tingle - it was the kind of feeling you got, almost a sixth sense, when you knew you weren’t alone when you previously had been. He waited until the last minute when he could be absolutely sure that Mark wasn’t going to turn and walk off in another direction, Ethan turned around and lifted his head to look at his boyfriend. “Hey,” he offered softly, treading carefully through the potential minefield. One, he didn’t know if Mark was still annoyed and two, they’d not had an argument since becoming a couple so it was new territory to the both of them. Best to be careful when you explored an uncharted cave.

With a sigh, Mark sat in the chair next to him, and Ethan could tell from the look on his face that he hadn’t slept a wink since he’d disappeared into his bedroom. His boyfriend turned his body towards him and he ran a hand over his face, another sigh escaping his lips. “I’m sorry I was so shitty earlier,” he mumbled, lowering his hand to his lap, “You didn’t - don’t - deserve to be treated like that. I overreacted because I was tired and had a fucking  _ awful _ time at work but that still doesn’t excuse how I acted.”

Ethan blinked furiously for a few moments, willing himself not to cry. Not  _ again. _ Yeah it was healthy to cry but he was pretty sure he did it way too much. Clearing his throat of the lump that was forming there, he gave a watery smile and set his phone down, then pulled Mark into a tight hug. “It’s okay,” he said quietly, pressing a kiss to the older man’s neck, “I know you’re tired and I could tell it was a bad day. I probably coulda waited to show you the recording room til after you’d slept anyway.”

“Still,” Mark huffed, blowing air across Ethan’s neck where his head was resting on his shoulder, “I didn’t have to act like an asshole. You did something really nice for me which you didn’t  _ have _ to do and I threw it back in your face… I’m sorry, Eth. I appreciate that you cleaned up the recording room.”

A smile spread across Ethan’s lips and he pulled back to press a gentle kiss to Mark’s forehead, “I’m sure you’ll appreciate it more when you’ve had some rest. Also, if you actually are worried about where all the stuff I cleared out went, it’s in a bag in the storage room. I knew you’d want to go through it all some time and decide what to do with it.”

“Ethan Nestor, the world does not deserve you,” Mark whispered, leaning in to kiss him, pouring all of his love into it, seemingly, because Ethan’s heart was hammering inside his ribcage. His eyes slid shut and he let Mark cup his face in his hands, the kiss slowly lighting up every nerve ending in his body. His own hands slid down to rest on his hip bones, his thumbs digging in and earning a satisfying groan from his boyfriend. 

Pulling back from the kiss, Ethan grinned and lightly pecked the tip of Mark’s nose. “Shh, babe, don’t be silly. We deserve each other. Especially after all the years we spent longing and pining for one another without doing a single thing about it.”

“Mmm, bet I did more pining than you,” Mark smirked, and Ethan rolled his eyes at his boyfriend’s ability to turn wistful romantic declarations into a competition.

“Not that it matters anymore now that we got our asses into gear,” Ethan giggled, lifting a hand to cup Mark’s jaw and stroke his thumb along the hard ridge, feeling stubble scratch at the pad of said digit.

“Hey, I still have a  _ lot _ of pent up longing in me that needs release,” Mark insisted, that devilish smirk still on his face, and Ethan adored the way his eyes sparkled with mischief.

“If that’s your attempt at flirting with me, Fischbach, you’ll need to try harder. An Unus does not simply fall into bed with an Annus just because the Annus requests it,” Ethan sniffed, turning his nose up, though he had a half smile on his face which betrayed the lack of seriousness of his words. All of a sudden, he felt himself being grabbed and pulled off of his chair and he yelped as he landed in Mark’s lap.

“You are  _ so _ annoyingly cute that I wanna eat you up sometimes, you know that?” Mark muttered, kissing Ethan’s neck a few times. Ethan felt his resolve wavering with each kiss to his skin, his pulse racing, but was glad that Mark was at least partially listening to him as his next words indicated. “ _ Fine _ , I’ll try and sleep again. I know you won’t be happy unless I do and your happiness is most important to me.”

“And so is  _ yours _ ,” Ethan reminded, booping him on the nose with his finger, “We should both be looking out for both of our happinesses, not just each others’, yeah?”

“You’re right,” Mark nodded, smiling as he looked up at him, “My smart, beautiful boyfriend. What did I ever do before I had you?”

“Nothing important,” Ethan grinned, then moved to climb off Mark’s lap, “Come on, I’ll even have a nap with you for a bit. How does that sound?”

“You’ve never had a better idea,” Mark chuckled, standing up too and taking his hand. Ethan squeezed his boyfriend’s fingers and, as they ascended the stairs, finally the feeling of dread that he’d woken up to that morning eased, allowing for the usual content to settle back in.

**Author's Note:**

> The idea for a first fight came from @gaaaaay (I think of the seal meme every time aha!) so thank you so much! I didn't want it to be too long a chapter because angst isn't fun and I didn't want it to be too serious. Hope you all appreciate that!  
> I'm on tumblr: pure-shores.tumblr.com   
> Thanks for reading, see you in the next one :)


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